The use of die-cut paperboard for packaging a variety of consumer goods is increasingly popular given paperboard's versatility, light weight and relatively low cost. Further, it is beneficial for a packaging manufacturer to produce a number of package styles which are producible from a common form, yet appear to be different when finished.
Optically-based media used for the storage of digital information is a type of packaged consumer good that is increasingly popular because it is economical. Optically-based media are used for the recording and distribution of computer programs, music, and video programs. In the context of digital video disks (“DVDs”), it is often desired to produce and sell DVDs in multi-disk sets. Examples of such sets are collections of several motion pictures, collections of television programs having a common featured actor or subject matter or collections of several episodes of a popular television series.
It has become common to market DVD's as a collection in a package which opens and closes in a book-like manner. The package includes an individual plastic tray for each DVD in the set with the trays being mounted to different “pages” of a paperboard element which is foldable on itself into a compact closed form. The paperboard stock commonly used in the manufacture of such a package is relatively light in weight and is preferred because of its low cost per unit area.
Conventional paperboard stock packages described as useful for packaging compact discs have inherent shortcomings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,812 describes a compact disc (“CD”) package and method of making same that is limited to a rectangular sheet configuration. This conventional rectangular configuration limits the ability to creatively package a multi-disk CD collection. In addition, the rectangular sheet configuration has a medial fold which allows for one weak edge when the sections are folded. Over years of repeated use, this weak edge on the folded-up package may tear along the medial fold line.
The paperboard packaging material is most economically obtained from large sheets of stock paperboard material. It is desirable that as many package units as possible be obtained from a single blank sheet of the stock. Therefore, it is desirable that the outlines of multiple package forms nest in close relation on the sheet, thereby to minimize waste of the stock material and to enable efficient printing on one side of the sheet before the sheet is die cut to create individual forms. Thus, there is a need for an improved form for a package and there is a need for an improved method of making the form from a sheet of stock paperboard material.